Defeated Tory councillors are already laying the blame firmly at Dave’s door this morning. Lifelong Tory and now former Hampshire councillor Alexis McEvoy has written a scathing attack for the Telegraph:

“There is a problem with the people at the top of our political parties. They just don’t listen. They don’t listen to ordinary people or our concerns. The European Union referendum is a good example. They all promise a referendum, but come the time, they change their minds and say ‘You don’t need a referendum”. David Cameron says he’ll have a referendum, but no-one believes a word he says. I don’t believe a word he says, and I’m a lifelong Conservative…

The Ukip messages chime with everybody, but they have done the Conservatives most harm, and I think that’s our own fault in a way. For some unknown reason, David Cameron and his advisers seem to think that a lot of Conservative voters’ values are out-of-date and need to be modernised and thrown out. These are values that we have held true to for years, and now they are being ditched. We stood up for things in the past. We don’t stand up for anything any more.”

Seems there's a market for small state, libertarian, Eurosceptic politics after all.

Quote of the Day

Chuka Umunna on Seumas Milne re Russia:

“Have read the comments of the Leader of the Opposition’s spokesperson. Mr Milne’s comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs. We’ll get abuse for saying so but where British lives have been put at risk it is important to be clear about this.”